Tugasan 1: Ulasan Buku

Title : Teachers Investigate hteir Work-An introduction to action research
across the professions (2nd edition)
Year Published: 2008
Author : Herbert Altrichter, Allan Feldman, Peter Posch and Bridget Somekh
Publication : Routledge, New York
Guideline:

1. KONSEP KAJIAN TINDAKAN
2. Mengapa guru perlu buat kajian tindakan
3. REKA BENTUK KAJIAN TINDAKAN
   model
   sampel / participant
   seting kajian
4. PROSEDUR KAJIAN TINDAKAN
5. PENGUMPULAN DAN PENGANALISISAN DATA
   instrumen kajian
   teknik pengumpulan data
   teknik penganalisisan data
6. ETIKA KAJIAN TINDAKAN (research ethics)
7. KEBOLEHPERCAYAAN DAN KESAHAN KAJIAN TINDAKAN (Reliability & Validity)
8. Penilaian Keseluruhan terhadap buku ini
   
   
   1: Concept of action research

Action research is the study of a social situation with a view of improving the quality of the action within it. It is action because people act within the systems that they are trying to understand and improve. It is intended to support practitioner researchers in coping with the challenges and carrying through innovations in a reflective way. Action research can be developed in various way. One is to read about practical methods and theories and another one is to study what other practitioners actually did in order to reflect on and imrpoving their practice.

The research into social situations especially when it related to human behavour, there is never got one clear answer and always involves uncovering the unexpected. To be a good action researcher, it is important to understand and sense the whole research process as an art to be continuosly perfected rather than a set of procedures that can be applied unproblematically. Besides that, we must also learn to reflect on what we have done, speculate on the possible implications of every situation and then generate theories to be tested in action.

2: Why we need to do an action research?

1. to take in depth look of our own teaching
2. to increase knowledge and skills of teaching and learning and our proffesional competency
3. to promote an understanding of teaching as intellectual and creative work
4. to improve ourself through reflection
5. to develop teaching and learning communities

3: Action Design

The action research design can be divided into 4 steps:

1. plan - identify the problem and plan the suitable strategies
2. action - carried out intervention
3. observation - one of the way in collecting data
4. reflect - repeat the cycle by carried out new strategies

4: Procedures of action research

As a starter, our research can be made up of nine steps. all the steps are interrelated. identify a

• research support group

We need to established ourself as part of a group that can share experiences and provide mutual support. All the members need to be active and involved in research and be good listeners for one another. Various strategies can be used in order to help groups to provide each other with high quality support.

• identify the collaborating research partners

These are usually the people who directly involved in the situation that we will be researching. The more closely involved with this partners, it is more powerful in bring out the changes. However, the less control of the partners will have over the direction of change.

• begin keeping a record of our research activities

This process can be also called as "research journal". The key idea is to build up an idea that come to us which related to our professional activities. The focus of this process will shift to more explicit recording of research activities.

• decide on the starting point for our research and begin investigating it

Starting points can be of many different kinds. There may be some problems, questions, or new approaches that want us to investigate. All of these approaches are fine because it refined that we want to start our research.

• clarify the starting point

This is the process of refining our research area through collecting and analyzing data. Sometimes, this stage may be frustrating because it need an important skill that we need to develop over time. However, it become interesting when we see some points from the data that we analyze.

• collect data systematically

Data collection is one of the important part of our research. In this process, we need to learn how to collect rich data according to different situation.

• analyze data

it is initially the most difficult process of our research. It is hard for us to significantly analyze the data. But, there are some techniques, methods and startegies that are useful in the process of analysis.

• developing action strategies and putting them into practice

When we start recording our impressions and reflection in our research, we will feel urge to start taking action. this very immediate feedback from research to practice is great benefits of proffesionals getting involved in action research. We will be able to plan action strategies more systematically when beginning to develop greater competence.

• published the knowledge that we make

The powerful of the research cannot be effective until it is shared shared with others. In practice, action research is never a finished process because each set of findings give rise to new ideas for action strategies and another cycle begins.

5: Data Collection and Data Analysis

Data Collection

Data is the material traces or representations of events and therefore are givens in a physical sense which can be passed on, stored and made accessible to many people. The data can be regarded as relevant by a researcher, providing evidence with respect to the issues investigated.

Three characteristics of data are important:

1. Data can only represent events selectively.
2. Process of selected data is depends on interpretative processes by the researcher.
3. Data are static because of their material character. Events lose their dynamic quality and cannot develop anymore.

What are or are not data depends on the research question. If the research is about the use of language by students, their written work or a recording of their conversations will be important data.

One way to develop a data collection plan is first write down a statement of the problem or question. The following question can be used as guideline:

• What do we need to know to better understand the situation and make decision about our practice?
• What types of data will provide us with the information that we need?
• What types of data are already available to us?
• What types of data do we need to generate?
• What instruments will we need to generate and collect data?
  

Action researchers can access different variety methods in collecting data. There are few ways mentioned as below:

1. existing archival data
   Written documents are the most obvious existing material that can be used as data. One of the examples is students’ attendance records. There is also unwritten evidence: for example, the appearance of a classroom. Using existing data has some advantages like higher credibility, can be collected relatively quickly and provides evidence of events that may not be accessible by other methods.
2. observing and documenting situations
   Observation is a normal process. Each type of practice in which we work with other human beings entails continuously looking for answers to practical questions. However, it is diffuse, biased and ephemeral. These weaknesses can be overcome by using systematic observation procedures. There are four ways of observing and documenting a situation: direct observation, audio-recording, photography and video-recording.
3. interviewing
   Interviews can be developed from daily conversation. They give access to other people’s perceptions, including the thoughts, attitudes and opinions that lie behind their behavior. However, this access is limited because it only brings to light what the interviewee thinks.
4. the written survey
   The written survey is a kind of formalized interview. The difference is, in a survey the interviewer cannot respond immediately to the answer or questions. Questionnaire is one of the most obvious examples that often used by researcher.
5. Collecting data as part of daily practice
   Data is also available from practitioners’ daily practice. One of the first things done is to take a patient’s case history. It can also be easy to adapt regular practice in order to generate relevant data.
6. triangulation
   The strategy of triangulation can also be used in our research. By combining different methods of data collection, we can better “locate” the meaning of our data. For example, triangulation may consist of a combination of observation and interview in order to get the perspective of our students.
   

In short, we emphasize that data collection does not replace what we learn from daily experience, but is based on it and should also support it where this is useful.

Data Analysis

The constructive data analysis process can be represented in a cycle of four steps:

1. reading data
2. selecting data
3. presenting data
4. interpreting data and drawing conclusions
   

6, 7: Validity, reliability and ethical justification of action research

According to Hammersley (1992), validity is valid or true account if it represents accurately those features of the phenomena that it is intended to describe, explain or theorize. Validity is always associated with quantitative research that uses statistical analysis of measurements. Because of this, many action researchers have rejected the use of the idea of validity. However, we believe that it is possible for action researchers to do research that is of high enough quality for it to be considered “valid”. The below are some criteria for improving the quality of action research:

1. considering alternative perspectives
   Consideration of alternative perspective is an important criterion in judging the quality of action research. Empirical research, objectivity, validity and reliability are commonly regarded as central criteria for judging quality. Action researchers can discover weak points in their research and raise it quality if they confront their findings with alternative perspectives of the situation. If discrepancies increase, these can be used as starting points for further reflection and development.
2. testing through practical action
   The validity of new knowledge or understanding can be tested through practical action. We construct practical theories when we apply our new knowledge and understandings. Practical theories can be the sources of hypotheses that we can test through actions that we take in our practice.
3. ethical justification
   There may be some scientists who are unaware of their discoveries will have some effect on society. Action research as we define it is research involving the people who want to do something to improve the way they work with other human beings. Action research always interferes with social situations. It always has an effect on the action researcher. Therefore, it is important for action researchers to be aware of ethical quality criteria when we carry out the action research.
4. practicality
   The high quality of action research needs to be compatible with the work and life of action researchers. It means that the research design should be compatible with the temporal and spatial flow imposed by practitioner’s main responsibility and also compatible with the professional culture of the practice field.

8: Summary

Action research is carried out by people directly concerned with th social situation that is being researched. It starts from practical questions arising from everyday professional practice. It is characterized by a continuing effort to closely relate, confront and interlink action and reflection. However, it must be compatible with the educational values of the workplace and with its working condition.